So this is pretty amazing. A guy wrote a story. It involved first-person language about spying on a semi-naked woman and murdering a homeless man, as well as volunteering to defend our country. Someone (quite possibly a disgruntled wikipedia user who was banned) called the school where writer-guy is a grad student and told them about the story, complaining that it looked suspicious. Writer-guy (okay, his name is Phil Sandifer) was subsequently investigated by the police, asked for fingerprints, etc. Apparently writing about stalking and murdering makes you a suspect for actually doing those things. No one asked him if he was actually thinking about defending our country.

The backstory is pretty interesting if you care to look into all the links, as well. Perhaps we should rework our action comedy to be, as one commenter suggested, all around the themes of candy and clouds?

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I'll have you know that at least two of the Madison, WI based playwrights for the co/Lab are DYING to see the podcast.

Don't make us come down there.

The Baron

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I found this at threadless.com:

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Rob Matsushita, last-minute lab rat, is talking about us again. Look around his site. This man knows action comedy.

Thanks Rob. Hope to keep you involved.

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Download the program pdf

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People (who couldn't be there) have been asking what happened at the co/lab. First of all, you should have all been there. Lots of really great stuff happened. A flurry of creativity happened.

The basics: Three groups of theatre artists made ensemble pieces based on rules. They were given their rules Friday night at about 10pm, and were ready for their tech rehearsals starting Saturday at 4pm. Amazing. The pieces were performed Saturday night at 7pm and 10pm.

The pieces were:

Enemy of Your Face: Big Explosions... Small Ship
created by Laura Gouin, Kyle D Reinford, Nick Loewen, and Jesse Landis-Eigsti

The Threat Level is Orange: Terrorists vs. Hos?: Banana Explosions and Lipstick Devices!!!!
created by Elizabeth Merschat, Colin Dyck, Jonathan Nafziger, and Anna Baer

Blammo!!!, or The Loneliest Cave Man, or The Chronicles of Pangea, or Burning Desire II: In the Heat of the Moment
created by Michaal Natoli, Mike Honderich, Sam Jacobs and Tyler Yoder

In general, I was so impressed with the variety, the dedication, the sense of humor, the fun use of soundtracks and characters, the sense of playfulness and surprise...

Here are some of my favorite images and moments:

Enemy...
Sweet falling in love scene between Nick and Laura (amidst violence against Kyle)
"I like walks on the beach too!", "I fart in bed too!"
Jesse winking at Kyle b/c of his "disguise"
Laura's cat fur whip
The brotherhood of the ninja.. er... something something... of Kentucky.
("It's basically just the two of us.")
The covert British accent code that can't be understood
Nick pulling lots of random small weapons out of his pockets and tossing them over his shoulder
Fighting one at a time (Laura waits)
The hilarious chase/fight scene, when everyone gets confused about who they are chasing and where they are going (the timing of coming and going)
Jesse killing Laura and Nick just as Kyle is telling us why they should be freed (slash! of their throats - poor lovers)

Threat Level...
Fabulous characterizations by hose-heads Beth and Anna, and drag queens Jon and Colin
Secretly talking into the lipstick and powder case (in pig latin)
Offstage banana fight with voices
"My hose have holes in them already, and I just bought them yesterday!" (they were fishnets)
Freeze frame, (un)romantic compliment, scream, freeze frame:
"Your hair is very blond", "Your nose is not very smooshy", "You have two eyebrows"...
Great use of twelve folding chairs
Fruit love
The appearance of three oranges, and suddenly: one has a bomb attached!
All are dying from the explosion in the dark, lights come up, "No! We're still dying!", lights down, repeat

Blammo!!!...
Michael Natoli introducing scenes in Spanish
Tyler the robot, being shunned by the cavemen
Getting taken hostage and taken to a lair! (me, as audience member)
The Caveman "Code" of Conduct, and everyone's agreement to follow it
The fight scenes: slapping hands, thumb wrestling, chess
Faces in the dark, lit by the flashlight
Deciding to call it "fire" (and Sam's insistence on having no imagination in naming it)
Tyler charging towards the cavemen, to music, fighting them off with the "fire" (flashlight)
Turning off the "fire" then Mike bringing in Tyler's burning heart (and the really bad "heartwarming" pun)

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Prior to the Co/Lab, several writers were sent assignments to write scenes. These scenes were read in between ensemble scenes on the night of the Co/Lab. I loved the variety of scripts, styles, characters... Check them out:

Four Things in No Particular Order, by Rob Matsushita (Madison, WI)
performed by Tyler Yoder
(Rob's assignment)

Carpe Norwegian, by Doug Reed (Madison, WI)
performed by Ben Jacobs, Michelle Milne, Emily Swora and Michael Natoli (the perfect Norwegian villain)

All The Things that Could've Gone So Much Better, by Ben Friesen (Louisville, KY)
performed by Jesse Landis-Eigsti, Kyle D. Reinford, Laura Gouin, Nick Loewen, and Ben Jacobs
(Ben's assignment)

Basically Makin Money, by Matt Sahr (South Korea)
performed by Ben Jacobs, Dan Horst, Michelle Milne, Emily Swora and Eric Meyer (with audience participation)
(Matt's assignment)

Untitled, or Bad Form, Baron, or Dougie, by Doug Reed (Madison, WI)
performed by Eric Meyer, Michelle Milne, Cassie Greer, Ben Jacobs, Tyler Yoder, and Michael Natoli

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A group of artists were given assignments throughout the week. Their deadline was Saturday morning. The artwork was hung in the flex space, against the brick wall. Again, I was impressed with the variety of styles and subject matter. Danny Palmer also played a slow-mo action film against layered white paper - we saw fists crashing through walls, slowly falling bodies, every detail of every punch and kick. It was amazing.

For the rest of the artwork, check out these links (more coming soon):

The Action Comedy Enneaptic, or The Grid of Good and Evil, created by Tim Nafziger (London, England)
parachutereality / escape / enneaptic
(Tim's assignment)

Off Camera, created by Kimi Maeda (Philadelphia, PA)
photo 1 / photo 2 / photo 3 / photo 4 / photo 5 / photo 6 / text
(Kimi's assignment)

Wonder Kitty Vs. The Purple Weltron, or Boy Wonder Fails Again, created by Erin Bontrager (Sturgis, MI)
(Erin's assignment)

Untitled, or Revenge of the Apocalypse Again, Photo by Lowell Brown (New York, NY)

Untitled, Painting by Joe Hartman (Goshen, IN)

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Prior to the Main Event of the 24 hours, everyone did personal ensemble performances, and then we divided everyone into specialized groups based on their prior requests. We gave each small group a one-hour introductory assignment.

Nick Loewen and Nicole Miazgowicz created an installation from this
... a hanging alarm that went off when we least expected it, an iron hanging in a fishnet over our heads, kitchen items (weapons) strewn around the floor behind the stairs, electrical cords everywhere...

Jesse Landis-Eigsti and Kyle D Reinford created a musical composition from this
...a piano and guitar both played nontraditionally, rhythmic repetition on a variety of weapon-like items, suspense-ful pauses, Kyle's bowing attempt, Jesse keeling over dead at the end...

Laura Gouin and Deanne Binde created written scenes from this
(we didn't get to hear these)

Everyone else was divided into two teams, and created games from this
... the Awesome Ostriches vs. The Ducks (that suck), the Lawnmowers vs. the Lawn, hiding a large mannekin vs. hiding a small figure in someone's clothing, forcing silly physical restrictions on the other team that you didn't need to follow yourselves, exuberant chants...

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We are currently in the midst of the COlLABorative action planning. I'm sitting in the office at New World Arts while Eric, Michelle, and Emily are making a coffee/tea run to the Electric Brew (I bet you anything Eric goes for another "moderately-iced" chai). We had a fairly intense start last night. Some of our people dropped out at the last minute, so we were busy making phone calls and shuffleing the groups.

while i write i hear the sounds of fighting, bodies hitting the ground, rocks being pounded together, highly-caffeinated conversations, and jingling keys. nwa is a hoping place for action.

We started off our collaborators with a few warm-up compositions. With a page full of stipulations and only fifteen minutes to create their pieces, these reluctant theatre geniuses pulled up some incredibly hysterical stuff ("have you ever heard of music that can kill?" -- Jonathan Nafziger being shot in the face by his comrads and laying out at least three feet in the air (that was startling)).

After doing the initial get-to-know-you / warm-up compositions, we divided participants into four different groups based on their chosen disciplines: one group for a visual arts piece in the stairwell, one group doing a commando writing assignment on mainstreet (the same assignment we used to generate our courthouse lawn plays or, in my case, get kidnapped), one group creatingand two groups to come up with games to play against each other. Here are some highlights from this round:
- massively unfair games. Each team made rules that only they could win.
- using weapons to make the games more "fun"
- knives and irons hanging from the light-fixture in the stairwell
- a trap that several people almost fall for
- an alarm that I knew was going to go off but still jumped when it did
- "didn't anyone tell you to wipe" repeated during the musical piece
- using the piano as a percussive instrument (without even touching the keys)

That was only some of the cool stuff we saw last night. If you come to NWA this evening at either 7:00 or 10:00, you can see some of it too. I'll leave you with a quote from Laura Gouin: "If we needed a mime, we could probably, long story short, kill my dad."

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AND: The fourth and final assignment from the baron: http://baronvonreed.livejournal.com/144146.html

though, there's something in this one i find a bit disturbing.

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In addition to the Baron in Madison, WI, and the Dave&Bryan ("Boom Boom") duo on their car trip, we now have the following people working on assignments:

Catherine Friesen, New York, NY (visual art/writing)
Ben Friesen & Co., Louisville, KY (writing)
Matt Sahr, somewhere, South Korea (writing and/or sound recording)
Tim Nafziger, London, England (visual art)
Rob Matsushita, Madison, WI (writing)
Jennifer Rathbone + partner, New York, NY (visual art/writing)
Alburn Binkley, Los Angeles, CA (visual art/writing)
Erin Bontrager, Sturgis, MI (visual art)
and soon to add: Kimi Maeda, Philadelphia, PA (writing)

We think this is WAY COOL.

Can't wait to get their assignments back, and can't wait to meet the other 20 or so participants Friday night.

What a week.

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Baron Von Reed's Assignment #3: http://baronvonreed.livejournal.com/144036.html

Reed has one segment to go - and he'll spend it completing the third part of this assignment.

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Okay, I know this technically has nothing to do with action comedy, but I find it funny and it sounds like it's full of action. (and some of us have met "Bad Mutha Smucka" in person) Maybe we could incorporate skates into a car chase?

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/22410

yeah... i wanna be a roller girl

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Baron Von Reed is still at it:

Assignment pt.1: http://baronvonreed.livejournal.com/143184.html

Assignment pt.2: http://baronvonreed.livejournal.com/143699.html

And we now also have Bryan "Boom Boom" Falcon and Dave "Boring" Kendal completing an assignment in the car on their way to "Chicago". We hope to hear from them soon.

Keep it totally un-real.

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Doug Reed was sent his first assignment for the Co/Lab today. he will be recieving installments throughout the week and posting his results on his own blog:

http://baronvonreed.livejournal.com/

Reed is working out of Madison, Wisconsin.

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Yesterday I discovered (created) my supersweet action name: Daisy Chainsaw.

But you can call me Wonder Woman. Full of action, and quite comedic.

Wonder Woman 82% Green Lantern 80% Supergirl 77% Spider-Man 75% The Flash 75% Hulk 70% Catwoman 65% Robin 55% Superman 50% Iron Man 45% Batman 30%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

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